A glimmering, violet liquid fills the one-ounce vial I'm examining while laying on my back right now. Colt and Thomas are doing some training a little distance away, leaving me to my thoughts. We already did all of our morning training, I'm resting after lunch, now.

I never expected Colt to be a prince. He doesn't have a group of guards like Lady Elise does! And even if he did, why would he be allowed to associate with me so closely, even with me being a seven-affinity?

I've acted so inappropriately in front of one of my princes. My words have been too blunt and honest for how I'm supposed to talk to royalty. Argh! Why didn't he ever correct me? Now I need to figure out how I'm supposed to act around him properly so I don't keep messing things up! And thinking he's cute… I'm a kid from the slums! I'm not allowed to think that about royals!

What do I do? How am I supposed to treat him? I don't know how to talk to him! And then he just goes and gives me this potion? Five of them! He said it's a birthday gift, and that it's normal to give gifts to people on their birthdays. Isn't this too expensive?

Mana Recovery Potion Grade: 3 This potion temporarily bolsters one's Mana Regen by 50%, granting a longer boost based on how much of this potion was consumed, with a maximum duration of 300 seconds with a full vial's worth.

A Grade 3 item… I learned on Tuesday, when I went to the guild to collect my payment, just how expensive these are. There were so many items that could be sold from the goblins I'd killed, and Daniel explained to me the Grade system. The higher the grade of an item, the more valuable it is. That value doesn't come from the materials, but from the effect.

That bonus will give me around 60 Mana or so more over those five minutes (I had to ask how long three hundred seconds was in minutes) than I would gain without it.

What an immense boost… for a normal mage, they'd probably only gain enough to cast a one or two more spells. For someone with several affinities and at least 15-20 Levels to their name, however, that might be ten or more spells. Or it could cover the cost of sustaining a barrier spell during that time.

At my current Level, one of these amounts to an additional 300 Mana or so, Colt said. I asked about several different values so that they would know my actual.

Why would he gift me these? I could tell he was just as surprised as I was to find out that even though I'm a boy from the slums, I'm also royalty of a distant kingdom.

Maybe it's a bribe? He's trying to buy my trust. I'm sure of it. Being Grade 3, these cost at least 50 gold coins each. Thomas's expression when he saw Colt giving them to me suggests they may be worth even more than that.

Also that Colt didn't let his bodyguard know what he was gifting me.

At least his other gifts were much less expensive. Colt told me about a few wonders he'd heard of. One of them is a waterfall that seems to just descend forever, and Thomas said he's actually seen it. Though it's in the Great Wilderness to the east, it's not so far as to be too dangerous for him, and he went there a few years ago with the king.

The king… Colt's a bastard. His mother was some noblewoman that the king had sex with while not being married to her. It was apparently a huge scandal when the affair was discovered. Colt said he suspects it wasn't as much of an affair as people made it out to be because his mother (he considers the queen his mother) has never treated him like he wasn't legitimate.

Even though that could be because of him surviving the Arcane Convergence, he says his mother also treats the other woman like a friend. He suspects that the 'affair' was something all involved parties agreed to, and word leaked when it wasn't supposed to have.

Colt said that the woman had never had a child with her own husband and the arrangement may have been an attempt at covertly getting her a child while making it seem like it was her husband's.

That whole situation makes my head spin even more, so I go back to examining this incredibly expensive bribe Colt is making. Does he think I'll be more likely to trust him if he gives me really expensive stuff?

"Max," Colt approaches, and I lower the vial as I sit up. "I'm going into the forest to hunt now, so I will see you either later if you're still here, or tomorrow if you come out here. Unless you wish to come with us?"

Is that him trying to tell me to come with him?

"My presence might interfere with your hunt," I speak as carefully as I can to make sure I get the words right, but it makes me speak a little slower. "So it would be best if I did not, to avoid affecting your ability to gain Levels. Thank you for the offer, though."

"Max," Colt says. "You don't need watch how you speak with me, it was clear talking like this was a struggle for you. It also just sounds weird, coming from you. Probably because I'm used to your normal way of speaking, which I know is you already trying to speak better. Just speak how it feels naturally to you, okay? This is an informal setting, and none of the three of us care how you speak, as long as we can understand what you're saying. And we usually can. Just keep treating me how you've always treated me. I'm the same person I was before you found out I was a prince, and if it mattered to me, I'd have corrected you and told you who I was sooner."

"Oka-yes, sir."

"Max," Colt rolls his eyes. "The only reason I told you who I was is because Elise told me I shouldn't hide it from you for so long, you'd find out eventually seeing as you have a map and know how to read."

"The map doesn't have words on it."

"Yeah," he nods. "But Elise said you'll probably eventually get one that does. And that you'd find out then."

"Oh."

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"Yeah," he smiles. "Well, I'll be off now. See you, Max."

"See you," I return the wave he gave me.

Colt and Thomas leave, and I go back to examining the vial. I'm not sure how long passes, but by the position of the sun, it's been at least an hour since they left when something happens.

"Excuse me?" A voice calls out, and it's not one from someone in Hailey's group.

I sit up and find three boys around my age standing there. They're standing with one in the front and two in the back, and their attire suggests they're all nobles, too. Or at least, wealthy. They can definitely tell by my tunic and my pants and my dirty face I'm of a much lesser status. Why are they talking to me?

Though they are all cute.

The one in front has straw-blond hair and light green eyes, and he's wearing some light leather armor over his purple tunic and black pants. On his hip is a sword with a beautiful hilt.

Behind him and to his right is a boy dressed in a sort of robe that parts at the front of the legs, the robe itself white, yellow, and blue, his pants a dark blue. He's wearing a purple armband right now, his hair is brown and slightly curled, and his eyes are brown. There are a few freckles on his pale cheeks.

As for the third boy, he has black hair and green eyes that remind me of some emeralds I saw in the loot from the goblins on Tuesday. His outfit consists of a red tunic, black pants, and a staff in his hand. Well, and the boots and belt, though that's a given since they're all wearing them and I doubt nobles would go around without those.

His staff is curious. It has a red crystal atop it, and the craftsmanship of the staff looks good. There's a black leather 'grip' under his hand, and now that I'm looking, I realize that he's wearing black leather gloves with a red-and-orange flame emblem on the back. He also has on a purple wristband.

That staff is… great.

Staff of the Blazing Abyss Grade: 5 All offensive fire and shadow magics channeled through this staff have 25% increased power and 25% reduced Mana cost. For a cost of 0.75 Mana per second, the user can also use [Wall of the Blazing Abyss].

Why does a kid have a staff that's so powerful and of such a high Grade? I probably won't learn why, and should definitely respond now so that I don't upset these nobles.

"Uh… hello," I say, hoping that I said that right.

I'm used to the more simple 'hi' and 'hey', but that probably won't work for these three.

Too many nobles today.

"Hello," the boy in front greets me. "I was wondering if you saw Prince Colton around here?"

I look around, aware that Colt's already in the forest.

"I don't see him," I say. "Why would he be out here and not celebrating the festival? Isn't part of it to celebrate his life?"

"Yes," the boy chuckles. "But he skipped out on the festivities. When I talked with Benjamin, he said that he believed Colton would be out here."

Benjamin is Colt's older brother, he said earlier. I didn't know any of the royals' names other than Princess Elise, and that was because I'd met Lady Elise. Colt felt it was best if I learned the names of the relevant royals.

"I don't see a prince out here."

"Right," the boy says. "And I'm going to assume you're Max, considering you look like Colton's description of him and you're holding an item in your hand worth three platinum while wearing a tattered outfit that was probably worth twenty-five copper at the most."

He knows my name?

"We're friends of Colton's," the boy chuckles. "He's mentioned you a few times and has said you like to hang out on this boulder. I'm Aaron, this is Cyrus, and this is Nicholas."

He indicates the robed boy and the mage, respectively.

"We were hoping to hang out with Colt," Aaron tells me. "Especially since we've finally been allowed to go hunting by our parents, and we know he'll have some good spots for us."

"Do you have Levels?" I ask.

"Not yet," he shakes his head. "But we're all three-affinities, so we do have a decent starting point. And we know it's best to start with slimes, we just figured he might know the best areas to fight them."

"Oh," I say. "Anywhere. The slimes tend to be evenly spread out. I usually train my aim over here, and some other kids from the slums train around here, too. They might be here soon. Colt usually trains about five hundred yards that way so that we don't accidentally hit each other or steal kills."

"He's not here," Aaron looks that way. "I guess Benjamin was wrong and he didn't come out today."

"He did," I say. "He's in the forest, hunting some stronger beasts. The sort that have over 100 Strength, Constitution, and/or Magic. He also has his bodyguard with him."

"Thomas, yeah," Aaron nods. "He doesn't go anywhere without his protective detail. Being the prince kind of makes that a necessity, even if he is a seven-affinity. Colt said you're a four-affinity? Fire, water, air, and light?"

So he's keeping the cover that Daniel came up with? Or did he tell them to pretend like they don't know I'm a seven-affinity? What if he arranged this meeting so that I could meet his friends and think it's just a coincidence, but it's really an attempt at showing me he's a good person by having me hear about him from his friends?

"Yeah," I answer.

"That's pretty neat," Aaron says. "Can we see some of what you can do?"

He wants to judge my magical abilities? Should I try to impress them, or should I make it clear that I'm not someone he should try to use for his own gain? Aaron, Cyrus, and Nicholas could be like Colt and wanting to befriend me because I'm a seven-affinity.

I'll do a little of both. That's a safer choice for me.

"Okay," I put the vial into the box it came in, then place the box into my pack, close the pack, and pull it on. "Let's move a little bit further from the city. I'm going to make it weaker, but it's still better if we move further away. One, so that I can use it on that mega water slime that likes to shoot at me if I draw too near to its territory. Two, so that it's less likely to be heard from the city and cause guards to come investigate."

"What?" Aaron asks.

Instead of answering, I walk over to the water slime, which is around one hundred feet from the eastern edge of where Colt trains. I don't know why he hasn't attacked it for the Experience, he's definitely powerful enough. Since Colt seems to have no interest in killing it, I'm going to use it for my demonstration. It won't give me any Experience since I'm too much more powerful than it, but it will still be good for showing off what I can do in a way that might intimidate someone out to use me for their own gains.

"Don't be concerned," I tell the trio of young noble children as I create a [Shadow Barrier] around us. "This is so that we don't go blind. There's an [Air Barrier] cast as well to protect us from the debris, which is why the shadowy field has that purple tint mixed into the shadows."

"What are you doing?" Aaron asks.

I create a [Flashbang Bomb], reduced to what I think is a good degree and won't be heard in the city. Then, I throw the spell at the mega water slime, the spell sinking into it rather than exploding. That's apparently normal for some type of spells, but it doesn't matter too much.

A few seconds after it's sunk into the mega water slime, the [Flashbang Bomb] detonates. Dirt and bits of slime go everywhere, and my ears ring even though I'd reduced the potency of the spell. I guess we were a little too close. We can see the massive crater in the ground caused by it as the dust starts to settle, the crater over forty feet in diameter and at its depth.

I turn around and look at the three young noble children to find looks of awe and shock on their faces.

"That," I say as the ringing in my ears start to subside. "Is currently my strongest spell. It uses light magic for the blinding effect, air magic for the sound, and air magic for the concussive waves of compressed air. Do you want to see anything else?"